For the second time in a row Spyker Squadron finished the Le Mans 24 Hours in the top 10. In the 78th edition of the famous endurance race the team overcame several serious problems and eventually finished the race in ninth place in the GT2 category.

After the accident with the Norma LMP2 on Saturday, which cost the team over an hour, there was more bad luck on Sunday morning. At 8.30 a.m. Jeroen Bleekemolen got a temperature warning and he brought the Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R back to the pit lane. As the team checked what the problem was exactly and eventually came up with a solution, precious time went by and only after two hours of hard work Jeroen was back in the car again and on his way out of the pit lane.

Soon after Jeroen had left the pit he reported a flat tire and came in. He went back out again with a new set of tires and fuel. At the end of his stint Jeroen handed over the car to Peter Dumbreck, who would take the finish. Peter drove a consistent stint and where other cars dropped out the Spyker kept going strong. When Peter came in just before the end of the race for a splash-and-dash he was told to do some final quick laps. After 280 laps he crossed the line and slowed down in order to celebrate the finish in front of the team.

Peter Dumbreck: “It was a bit of a tough start, bit of a baptism when I had the drama with getting pushed off by a prototype. But it was important that I got back in the car. So I am happy that my next stint went well. We ran a good pace, we were kinda given the all-clear to push a little bit. Maybe in doing so we had a few more problems with the car, like a gearbox problem. It is a little bit hard to sit in the pit box for two hours, knowing that you could acutally be fighting. So many cars had problems as well. But the end result is that we got to the end. I was able to do a nice stint at the end, bring the car back and see the chequered flag!”

Victor R. Muller, CEO Spyker Cars: “I am extremely proud of our team, which managed to overcome the severe impact of the damage caused by the crash into the wall of Peter Dumbreck and an LMP car last night. In spite of that we managed to finish in ninth place, which is quite an achievement. It is the second consecutive year that Spyker Squadron performs so well at Le Mans and if we had been a little bit more lucky we might have seen the podium from very close by. As always there is another Le Mans next year.”